Prada Group’s Forestami Academy Returns for Second Year

Andrea Onate
·2 min read

RENOVATED COMMITMENT: Prada Group and Forestami, Milan’s reforestation project with the goal of planting 3 million trees in the city by 2030, are launching the second edition of Forestami Academy.

Introduced in 2023 with the aim of educating Milan’s citizens about urban forestation through talks, seminars and workshops, the sophomore edition, spearheaded by Maria Chiara Pastore, associate professor at Politecnico University in Milan, will center on the topic of “Urban Forestry: Well-being and Health.”

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“The importance of greenery and its benefits to people’s well-being is a subject dear to the Prada Group as demonstrated by our ‘garden-factory’ architectural projects, in which nature is the key element,” said Lorenzo Bertelli, the group’s head of corporate social responsibility. “The cultural challenge of the second year will be to understand the impact — supported by scientific evidence — that trees have on quality of life for all of us, both from an emotional and physical perspective. People’s health also depends on knowing what can benefit their well-being. The group will work alongside the academy on this journey of discovery.”

Two events will be held at the Triennale Milano design museum on May 10 and June 21. The first will feature Matilda van den Bosch, senior researcher at the Biocities Facility of the European Forest Institute and a scientist at the Barcelona Institute for global health in Spain, and Ilaria Doimo, researcher at Etifor, a spinoff of the University of Padua, discussing “well-being in our cities.” The June event will have Francesco Ferrini, professor of arboriculture and tree cultivation at the University of Florence, hosting a seminar on, “Why are urban forests so important for us? Talking about trees to talk about health.”

The last leg of the 2024 edition will take place in October as a field experiment called “Forest Bathing” curated by Francesco Becheri, founding psychotherapist and psychological scientific director of the Pian dei Termini Forest therapy station in Tuscany.

“Only citizens who are well informed can make an active contribution to safeguarding and improving the area in which they live. I would like to thank the Prada Group for its active support of the Forestami Academy initiative: a true urban forestry school, designed to offer citizens, free of charge, the know-how developed over the years by Forestami, its operators and researchers, to expand wooded and tree-covered areas in our metropolis,” said Stefano Boeri, president of the Forestami scientific committee.

Interested citizens can register on the dedicated websites for the three events, each of which is expected to last around three hours and will be open to a maximum of 100 participants.

Prada is not new to educating about sustainability. Last January it expanded the Sea Beyond program in partnership with UNESCO to 56 countries, aiming to educate and sensitize some 34,000 students in the third edition of the project.

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